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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
FANTASTIC! One of the few mysteries I read over and over,
By A Customer
This review is from: When in Greece (Hardcover)
I'm a huge fan of Emma Lathen, and this is probably my favorite book of all. Like all of her books, it is very witty (in some places, downright hilarious), and thoroughly enjoyable. The series features Wall Street bank executive John Putnam Thatcher and his colleagues -- and Wall Street banking was never that interesting when I worked there. Although I usually give away mysteries after reading them, this is one of only two series I keep and reread. I never tire of them.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
BANK ON IT,
By
This review is from: When in Greece (Paperback)
It's a strange thing, but when you frequent book sales and thrift stores as much as I do, there are some authors who are so popular that you're likely to see their books in bunches at every stop. And you get to the point where you automatically skim past them, either because you know you've read them all or you have no desire to do so now. Since I peruse the mystery titles in particular and since there are so many "cozies" by female authors, I'm afraid I'd made "Emma Lathen" one of the authors I didn't pay any attention. Until the other day that is, when the local Salvation Army store had almost an entire shelf of them out curiosity got the best of me. Good thing too...Mary J. Latis and Martha Hennissart met as graduate students at Harvard and paired up to write over 20 John Putnam Thatcher "mysteries," under the Emma Lathen pen name, between 1961 and 1997, when Ms Latsis died. Ms Hennissart was a corporate lawyer, but their detective hero owed more to Ms Latsis's career as an economist (including stints with the CIA and UN). Thatcher is the Executive Vice President of Sloan Guaranty Trust and they use his business dealings and Wall Street intrigues as the backdrop for his adventures. As luck would have it, I chose to read "When in Greece" first, and it was something of a departure for the authors. Ms Latsis was of Greek decent and was so disturbed by the Colonels Coup there in 1967 that they set aside the installment they'd been working on and churned out one with a Greek setting in just six weeks. Ken Nicholls, a junior executive at the bank, is in Greece working out the details of a deal when the coup occurs. For obscure reasons, he's suspected of some involvement with Greek radicals and ends up going on the run. An amusingly pompous senior bank officer, Everett Gabler, is sent to straighten things out but he is kidnapped in turn. Enter Thatcher... The authors keep the tone light and the action moving. They use the milieu to criticize the military plotters, but aren't overly polemical and they portray Greece as such a nest of plot and counter-plot that the coup almost seems sensible by the end. Fortunately, I've got a whole pile of Thatcher adventures to work my way through now and know better than to ignore the Emma Lathen titles in the future.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best books in one of the best series.,
By Colin Glithero "nedalleyn" (Auburn,WA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: When in Greece (Paperback)
Emma Lathen is my absolute favorite mystery writer.(I know that "Emma Lathen" was a composite of the names of the two authors, Mary Latsis and Martha Hennisart, but it's easier to use the singular for their joint identity). She always writes an absorbing mystery, inserting bona fide clues, but her books contain so much more. Her characterisations,the background of each story, the underlying tensions, the twists and turns of the plot, are all beautifully conveyed. Her observations on the absurdities of life and human nature are both acute and often extremely funny, though she is never flippant about real pain and tragedy. "When in Greece" is one of the best of a series in which every book is great. Bankers are not the most popular people around right now, but John Putnam Thatcher, Senior Vice-President of the Sloan Guaranty Trust, "the third largest bank in the world" is a pleasure to know, intelligent and humane. Anyone who likes a mystery which is literate and smart, but not pretentious or long-winded like many of today's more prestigious ones ( P.D.James,for example, or the dreary Elizabeth George) will relish Emma Lathen. In fact, although this book is indeed one of her best, I would rather recommend reading them in sequence, though this is not essential. So buy (for ridiculously low prices), read, and enjoy.
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